The Best Companies to Start a Career

Moving to a city that's first-time job seeker friendly can improve your chances of landing an entry-level job, and you're really in luck if you can score a position with a company that treats its beginner workforce especially well.

BusinessWeek compiled its annual list of the best places to launch a career by polling college career counseling directors across the country and collecting statistics from employers to learn about details like pay, benefits, training programs, and retention rates. See which employers took the top 10 spots and the average pay for entry-level hires when you

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Deloitte (Accounting): average pay $55,000 to $60,000

Ernst & Young (Accounting): average pay $50,000 to $55,000

PricewaterhouseCoopers (Accounting): average pay $50,000 to $55,000

KPMG (Accounting): average pay $50,000 to $55,000

U.S. State Dept. (Nonprofit/Government): average pay $60,000 to $65,000

Goldman Sachs (Investment Banking): average pay $60,000 to $65,000

Teach for America (Nonprofit/Government): average pay $35,000 to $40,000